Stay on target

You know Daleks and Davros and Missy the Master, Angels and Silence hell-bent on disaster. But do you recall the most underrated Doctor Who villains of all?

Each week, I will dig into the depths of the Whoniverse to examine one rejected, misjudged, or altogether forgotten big bad. Try to steer clear of these crabby critters.

A classic villain returns (via BBC)

MACRA

First appearance: “The Macra Terror” (1967)—season 4, serial 7

Home planet: N/A

Doctors: Second, Tenth

Companions: Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Jamie McCrimmon, Martha Jones

They say people go missing on the motorway.

Some cars just vanish, never to be seen again. Because there’s something living down there in the smoke. Something huge and hungry. And if you get lost on the road, it’s waiting for you.

Macra first appeared in the 1967 serial “The Macra Terror”—an intelligent, crab-like race from a planet colonized by humans in the future.

I ain’t afraid of no giant crab (via BBC)

The Second Doctor, traveling with a TARDIS-full of companions (Polly, Ben, and Jamie), is skeptical about life in the colony; the sense of falsehood and empty promises unnerves the Time Lord.

And rightfully so: Giant crustaceans with strong hypnotic powers have seized control of the community and brainwashed locals into slavery; blissfully unaware, people are mining for gas—poisonous to humans, vital to the shellfish.

The duplicitous Doctor, meanwhile, affects a revolution among the colony, breaking folks from their conditioning and eventually massacring the Macra.

Crab got your tongue? (via BBC)

But that (miraculously) wasn’t the end for these nippy miscreants.

Showrunner Russell T. Davies revived the Macra 40 years later—now faded beasts lurking in a fog of vehicle exhaust below the crowded motorway of New New York, hoping to snatch a few flying cars that drift off course.

“The Macra used to be the scourge of this galaxy. Gas. They fed off gas, the filthier the better,” the Tenth Doctor explains. “They built up a small empire using humans as slaves and mining gas for food.

“That was billions of years ago. Billions,” he continued. “They must have devolved down the years. Now they’re just beasts. But they’re still hungry.”

They’re still hungry (via BBC)

Playing hero once more, the Doctor again defeats the clawed creatures by opening the roof of the track, allowing cars to escape to the Upper City, and depriving Macra of the food and gases on which they thrive.

While audio recordings, photographs, and clips from Ian Stuart Black’s 1967 serial exist, none of the original episodes survived. So, whether you like them or not, these Macra are the only ones you’ve got.

Fun fact: Macra were the first one-off opponent from the classic series to reappear in the reboot. Zygons followed in Eleventh Doctor tale “The Day of the Doctor.”

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